Huskie offence displays the “good and bad”

Total yardage of 621 yards. 44 first downs. Big plays through the air an on the ground. But lots of dropped passes and a couple of interceptions as well. The Huskie offence had fans on the edge of their seat all Friday night when they faced the Bisons. “Offensively, the night can be described as good and bad I guess,” is how offensive coordinator, Brent Schneider described it. “One thing that I’m really happy with is that we stuck with it; we kept our focus and we’ve been good at that all year. We dropped some balls in the first half and that was the only thing that was stopping us.”

Garrett Burgess returned from injury and had 12 receptions for 135 yards in his first game of the season (photo Derek Mortenson for Electric Umbrella)

Kit Hillis was one of the receivers who experienced this up and down game. He had a couple of drops, but he also continued to post big numbers with 12 more catches for 141 yards. Hillis has only been held below 100 yards once this season – an 85 yard effort against Alberta. He talked about the night that the receivers had. “I was really mad at myself in the locker room at halftime. I know that Burg (Garrett Burgess) let one drop as well. We went in the locker room and said that’s not like us – we’re better than that. In the second half we came out, fought hard for the ball, and showed what we can do. Having Garrett back adds a whole new dimension to the offence – he helps stretch that front side a little more.”

Fans at the game didn’t need to see a stat sheet to know that the offence was really moving the ball. “We ran a lot of plays (98) tonight,” added Coach Schneider. “I don’t think we’ve ever run that many plays. It was a good win. It was one of those games that we had to win.” Schneider commented about the added boost of having RB Shane Buchanan in the lineup. “It’s nice to have him back there. He ripped off a couple of runs, and hopefully that launches us into some more consistency in our running game. We went long stretches where we didn’t run the ball, and then when we needed to we did.

Scoring 4 touchdowns in the final 10:55 of a game, for a come from behind victory, has the potential to help build some momentum for the remainder of the season. “This game was a character builder,” Schneider remarked. “We talked a lot about launching ourselves into this last stretch, and hopefully we’ve set ourselves on the right path.”